hey, i would like to share with you about my passion for the Old Testament (OT). my students call me 'rabbi' or 'reb' for short.
the reb's passion in life (apart from God and wife and family) is the OT.
the reb used to teach the OT in a seminary. he also does a lot of weekend teaching and preaching in churches. and he writes and authored 9 books...
email: aloke6@gmail.com

Who Made the Bust of Queen Nefertiti?

Nefertiti mystery solved

Has the ancient Egyptian artist who created the famous bust of Nefertiti been identified? French Egyptologist Alain Zivie certainly thinks so. In a recent article in Arts & Cultures,1 the annual publication of the Musée Barbier-Müller, Zivie demonstrates that we have very good reasons to believe that a 14th-century B.C. Egyptian artist named Thutmose was the skilled artisan who memorialized Nefertiti’s visage in stone and plaster.

Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten, pharaoh of Egypt in the mid-14th century B.C. In the fifth year of his reign, Akhenaten moved the capital from Memphis to Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna), a new city he established on the east side of the Nile River. During Akhenaten’s reign, new styles of Egyptian art were adopted—with one of the most iconic pieces of art from this period being the bust of Nefertiti. It is debated whether the famous bust idealized the queen’s beauty.

Saturday, 31 October 2015

Ancient Clay Tablet Offers New Insights into the Gilgamesh Epic

Gilgamesh tablet on display at the Sulaymaniyah Museum

This ancient clay tablet was acquired along with other Babylonian antiquities in 2011 by the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq. Researchers discovered that the tablet contained passages from the Gilgamesh Epic. Photo: “Tablet V of the Epic of Gligamesh” by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg). Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons.

Tablet V of the ancient Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Epic tells the story of the heroes Gilgamesh and Enkidu as they combat Humbaba, the monstrous guardian of the Cedar Forest. Two ancient clay tablets securely represent the story that unfolds in Tablet V: a Neo-Assyrian tablet fromNineveh and a Late Babylonian tablet from Uruk. Now, an ancient clay tablet acquired in recent years by the Sulaymaniyah Museum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraqoffers new insights into the adventures of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu.

The earliest known texts of the Gilgamesh Epic were written by the Sumerians, the first literate civilization inMesopotamia, in the third millennium B.C.E. By the end of the second millennium B.C.E., the epic story developed into an 11-tablet text. Assyrian scribes added an additional tablet describing Gilgamesh’s preparations for death and journey to the underworld in the eighth century B.C.E.

The Sulaymaniyah Museum tablet is a copy of Tablet V of the so-called Standard Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh Epic. Assyriologists Farouk Al-Rawi and Andrew George, both of SOAS, University of London, studied the tablet together over five days in the Sulaymaniyah Museum and published their findings in 2014.1 Inscribed by hand incuneiform, the writing system of “wedge-shaped” signs used throughout the Near East in the first four millennia B.C.E., the partially broken tablet measures 4.3 by 3.7 inches and is 1.2 inches thick.

While the provenance of the Gilgamesh tablet is unknown, the researchers state in their paper that it’s “highly probable that [the tablet] was unearthed at a Babylonian site.”

“The only evidence for the time of writing of an undated cuneiform tablet is paleography,” Andrew George told Bible History Daily. “In my opinion, having read many tablets of Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian date, the script of the Sulaymaniyah Gilgamesh tablet […] is a typical Neo-Babylonian script, probably—and here things are more subjective—not later than the sixth century B.C.E.”

Friday, 23 October 2015

The unassuming slab of limestone doesn’t look like much. It’s crudely fractured and chipped on the sides, pockmarked with age, and is perched not too prominently on a shelf at the Israel Museum. But its smoothly hewn face and crisply etched Greek letters still bearing faint traces of red paint belie monumental significance.

“If we talk about the closest thing to the Temple we have,” said David Mevorach, senior curator of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Archaeology, “on the Temple Mount, this was closest.”

Two millennia ago, the block served as one of several Do Not Enter signs in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, delineating a section of the 37-acre complex which was off-limits for the ritually impure — Jews and non-Jews alike. Written in Greek (no Latin versions have survived), they warned: “No foreigner may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue.”

There are actually two extant copies of the warning notices — a partial one here in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum, and a second, complete, one in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum — and they are among a small handful of artifacts conclusively belonging to the shrine built by Herod toward the end of the first century CE. Contemporary accounts mentioned their existence, and 1,800 years after the Temple’s destruction, a French archaeologist found a complete copy that had been incorporated into the wall of a Muslim school in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Pan mask uncovered at Hippos, Israel

In November 2014, the team at Antiochia Hippos, Israel, uncovered an extraordinary artifact—a large bronze mask of the Greek god Pan (or Faunus in the Roman pantheon). The mask depicts a young man with small horns on his head, a forelock, long pointed ears and strands of a goat beard. With glazed, furious eyes and a gaping mouth, the Pan mask appears to watch the passing world.

Michael Eisenberg, Director of the Hippos-Sussita Excavations, details this new discovery in“Pan at Hippos—Face of Greek God Unearthed,”published in the November/December 2015 issue ofBiblical Archaeology Review. Weighing more than 11 pounds and measuring nearly 12 inches tall, the Pan maskis made of well-cast bronze. It was discovered outside the walled city of Hippos, Israel—in a basalt tower with 6.5-foot-wide exterior walls.

Dr. Alexander Iermolin, the head conservator at the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at Haifa University, uncovered the Pan mask above a first-century C.E. floor while operating a metal detector in the basalt tower. Although the mask was not found in situ on the floor, it should also be dated to the first–second centuries C.E.

Sunday, 11 October 2015

The Siloam Pool: Where Jesus Healed the Blind Man

A sacred Christian site identified by archaeologists

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in May 2011. It has been updated.—Ed.

In 2004, the stepped remains of the ancient Siloam Pool, long thought to be located elsewhere, were uncovered near the City of David. According to the Gospel of John, it was at this sacred Christian site that Jesus healed the blind man. Photo: Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com.

The Siloam Pool has long been considered a sacred Christian site, even if the correct identification of the site itself was uncertain. According to the Gospel of John, it was at the Siloam Pool whereJesus healed the blind man (John 9:1–11).

Traditionally, the Christian site of the Siloam Pool was the pool and church that were built by the Byzantine empress Eudocia (c. 400–460 A.D.) to commemorate the miracle recounted in the New Testament. However, the exact location of the original pool as it existed during the time of Jesus remained a mystery until June 2004.

During construction work to repair a large water pipe south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, at the southern end of the ridge known as the City of David, archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron identified two ancient stone steps. Further excavation revealed that they were part of a monumental pool from the Second Temple period, the period in which Jesus lived. The structure Reich and Shukron discovered was 225 feet long, with corners that are slightly greater than 90 degrees, indicating a trapezoidal shape, with the widening end oriented toward Tyropoeon valley.

The Siloam Pool is adjacent to the area in the ancient City of David known as the King’s Garden and is just southeast of the remains of the fifth-century church and pool traditionally believed to be the sacred Christian site.

Bible and archaeology news

A unique menorah mosaic was recently uncovered on a synagogue floor at Horvat Kur in the Galilee. Dated to the Byzantine period (fourth–seventh centuries), the mosaic depicts an elaborate seven-branched menorah (lampstand) with oil lamps resting at the top of each arm of the candelabra. The lamp at the top of the middle branch has its wick—and accompanying flame—in the very middle of the lamp. Such lamps have not been attested in the archaeological record, but the lamps on the other arms of the menorah resemble known Byzantine types. These lamps face the center with their wicks and flames pointed toward the middle branch of the menorah.

Written across the top of the menorah mosaic are three names: “El‘azar, son of Yudan, son of Susa [or Qoso].” The directors of the Kinneret Regional Project, who exposed this mosaic—Drs. Jürgen Zangenberg, Raimo Hakola, Byron R. McCane and Stefan Münger—think that these might be the names of prominent members of the Jewish community at Horvat Kur during the Byzantine period, or, they posit, perhaps El‘azar and his ancestors helped fund the construction of the synagogue.

Friday, 25 September 2015

Tiny stone seal from King David era found in Temple Mount fillLimestone engraved with animals believed to date from 10th century BCE, found in rubble excavated from site of former temples

A cone-shaped seal found in rubble excavated from the Temple Mount believed to date to around the 10th century BCE (Zachi Dvira, Temple Mount Sifting Project)

A rare stone seal believed to date from the 10th century BCE was recently found in rubble removed from the Temple Mount, archaeologists announced.

The artifact was found some time in the past half year by a 10-year-old Russian boy who volunteered for a day at the Temple Mount Sifting Project, which sorts through rubble that was excavated from the contested holy site during the construction of the Marwani mosque in the late 1990s. Only recently, however, was the seal deciphered, the group said.

The seal, carved from brown limestone, features two crudely engraved animals, one atop the other, “perhaps representing a predator and its prey,” Dr. Gabriel Barkay, the co-founder and director of the project, said in a statement Thursday.

While later stone seals with inscriptions have been found in Jerusalem, Barkay said in a phone call with The Times of Israel that it was unique inasmuch as it was the first of its type and from that period found in Jerusalem.

He said the design might have been a family emblem, but it wasn’t immediately clear.

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

The Shema‘ Yisrael

Monotheistic Jewish amulet discovered near Carnuntum

According to a recent article in Biblical Archaeology Review, the Shema‘ Yisrael on this Jewish amulet discovered near Carnuntum is one of the earliest monotheistic readings of Deuteronomy.

The Shema‘ Yisrael from Deuteronomy 6:4 (“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one”) is Judaism’s holiest confession. Today, we understand the passage as a monotheistic declaration. However, in the Second Temple period, the Shema‘ Yisrael text in Deuteronomy would have been read “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lordalone.” The Shema‘ Yisrael was originally a monolatric statement; it stated that Israel had an exclusive relationship with its God, but it did not deny the existence of other national deities for other peoples.

When did Deuteronomy’s Shema‘ Yisrael become a monotheistic statement? When did Jews begin to recognize their deity as the only deity existing in the universe? In theMay/June 2013 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Armin Lange and Esther Eshel discuss the discovery of a Jewish amulet near the city of Carnuntum that “marks an early pinnacle of this monotheistic interpretation of theShema‘ Yisrael in Deuteronomy 6:4.”

Jeremiah, Prophet of the Bible, Brought Back to Life

Clay bullae from the City of David, Jerusalem, provide new evidence for Biblical figures

This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in March 2012. It has been updated.—Ed.

The relationship between archaeology and the Bible is not always an easy one, but sometimes they come together in striking agreement as witnesses to history. Two small clay bullae (seal impressions) found in the course of Eilat Mazar’s City of David, Jerusalem, excavations are bringing Jeremiah, prophet of the last kings of Judah, back to life.

These clay bullae (seal impressions), discovered by archaeologist Eilat Mazar during her excavations of the City of David, Jerusalem, bear the names of two royal ministers mentioned in the Bible’s story of Jeremiah, prophet of the Old Testament. Photos by Gaby Laron, The Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University.

The first of the clay bullae, which surfaced during Mazar’s excavation of what may be King David’s palace, bears the name “Yehuchal [or Jehucal] ben Shelemyahu [Shelemiah]” (pictured above left). The second was found in the First Temple period strata underneath what has been identified as Nehemiah’s Northern Tower, just a few yards away from the first, and reads “Gedalyahu [Gedaliah] ben Pashur” (pictured above right).

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

This course surveys the major books and ideas of the Hebrew Bible (also called the Old Testament) examining the historical context in which the texts emerged and were redacted. A major subtext of the course is the distinction between how the Bible was read by ancient interpreters (whose interpretations became the basis for many iconic literary and artistic works of Western Civilization) and how it is approached by modern bible scholarship. James Kugel, former Harvard professor and author of the course’s textbook, contends that these ways of reading the Bible are mutually exclusive. Professor Cohen respectfully disagrees.
The course syllabus is your primary roadmap; it contains general information about the course and lists the topics covered and assigned readings for each of the 25 lectures. Video recordings of each lecture can be viewed alongside Prof Cohen's lecture notes. A series of timelines is available to illustrate aspects of the course which unfold over time: the Overview timeline shows the major eras of Israelite history and the Ideas-Basic timeline illustrates the succession of major ideas.
The About tab contains a link to suggestions about how to view the course.

Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Hoard of Gold Coins Found in Caesarea Harbor

Archaeology news

A hoard of gold coins—the largest discovered to date in Israel—was found by divers in the Caesarea harbor.Photo: Courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced that a massive coin hoard has been recovered from the waters off the ancient port city of Caesarea Maritima in Israel. The hoard of almost 2,000 gold coins was spotted by a group of divers, who immediately reported their discovery to the Marine Archaeology Unit of the IAA.

The majority of the gold coins, which were minted in Egypt and North Africa, date to the Fatimid caliphs Al-Ḥākim (996–1021 C.E.) and Al-Ẓāhir (1021–1036 C.E.). The rulers of the Fatimid dynasty, who traced their descent from Islamic prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, came to reign over Egypt, North Africa, the Levant and Sicily between the 10th and early 12th centuries.